How to Manually Remove a Server from Power BI Report Server Scale-out Deployment Configuration - Article on SQLNetHub

How To Manually Remove a Report Server Instance from a Power BI Report Server Scale-Out Deployment Configuration

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Hi friends. In this article, we will be discussing about, how you can manually remove a Report Server instance from a Power BI Report Server Scale-out deployment configuration.

 

Why Manually Removing a Report Server Instance from a Power BI Report Server Scale-Out Configuration?

There can be many reasons for doing that. However, the most common case, is to have a Report Server instance that is no longer available, or is in a “Waiting to join” state, or generally, it is a Report Server instance that you want to remove from your Power BI Report server’s scale-out deployment configuration.

Another scenario, is when you set up a Power BI Report Server based on a backup of another server, where in this case, you will need to revise the settings of the new server, since they might be containing parts of configuration that refer to the original server.

 

Prior to Doing Anything

Prior to doing anything, you are strongly advised, to take a full backup of the ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB databases, as well as, take a backup of the Encryption Keys of your Power BI Report Server instance, via its Configuration Manager.

Also, you will need to note down all the options set for your Power BI Report Server instance, from within the Configuration Manager, just in case they are needed for recovery purposes.

 

Before Trying to Manually Remove the Report Server Instance from the Scale-Out Configuration

Before manually trying to remove the Report Server instance from the scale-out deployment configuration, you should try to perform this task form within your Power BI Report Server instance’s Configuration Manager.

To do this, from within the Configuration Manager, you need to navigate to the “Scale-out Deployment” tab, and then from that dialog, you can try removing the Report Server instance that no longer exists or in general, the Report Server instance that you do not wish to be part of your actual Power BI Report Server’s scale-out deployment setup any longer.

If the above action cannot be performed for any reason (i.e. the Report Server instance you want to remove from the setup is not reachable, or no longer exists, etc.) you can consider trying to manually remove the Report Server instance from the configuration, using the RSKeyMgmt.exe command-line utility that comes with Power BI Report Server (you need to be very careful when using the command-line utility).

 

Manually Removing the Report Server Instance from the Scale-Out Deployment Configuration

Please check below, how you can try to manually remove a no-longer needed Report Server instance from the scale-out deployment configuration of a Power BI Report Server.

 

Step 1: Retrieve the keys for the Report Server instance entries in the scale-out deployment configuration

As mentioned above, if for any reason you need to manually perform this action, you can try using the RSKeyMgmt.exe command-line utility that comes with Power BI Report Server and can be usually found in the below folder (or in the folder you specified during the installation of the Power BI Report Server):

c:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Report Server\Shared Tools

 

Then, you need to list the Report Server instance keys, by running the below command in the Windows command prompt as Administrator:

RSKeyMgmt.exe -l

The above command, will list the keys of all Report Server instances which are included in your Power BI Report server’s scale-out deployment configuration.

The retrieved results will be in the form of: [Report Server Instance] – [GUID number]

* As an extra precaution, you can also backup the retrieved information, after running the above command.

 

Step 2: Identify the key for the Report Server instance you wish to remove from the scale-out deployment configuration

The next step, is to identify the key for the Report Server instance you wish to remove from the scale-out deployment configuration.

The key, is in the form of a GUID number (32 characters – without counting the dashes).

* You need to be extra cautious during this step, in order to identify the correct key, otherwise you risk removing the wrong Report Server instance and breaking the setup of the Power BI Report server.

 

Step 3: Delete the key of the Report Server instance you wish to remove from the scale-out deployment configuration

The final step, is to delete the key for the Report Server instance you wish to remove from the Power BI Report Server’s scale-out deployment configuration, using the below command as Administrator on the Windows command prompt (you will need to enter the correct GUID number):

RSKeyMgmt.exe -r <guid>

 

Step 4: Validation – Retrieve again the keys for the Report Server instance entries in the scale-out deployment configuration

For validation purposes, list again the Report Server instance keys, by running the below command in the Windows command prompt as Administrator, and ensure that the correct key has been removed.

RSKeyMgmt.exe -l

 

If nothing of the above  works and the unwanted scale-out Report Server instance is still included in the configuration

If nothing of the above works, you can try connecting to the Report Server’s database (i.e. using SSMS or Azure Data Studio) and check the key entries in the “Keys” table in the “ReportServer” database.

If the key of the Report Server instance that you want to remove from the Power BI Report server’s scale-out deployment configuration is still there, you can consider deleting the key from the table. It goes without saying that before doing anything, you ensure that you have full database backups of the “ReportServer” and “ReportServerTempdb” databases, as well as, a backup of the Encryption Keys of the Power BI Report Server instance (see “Prior to Doing Anything” section above).

In another article on SQLNetHub, I fully describe the process of working with the ReportServer database for resolving a similar issue (not the same issue – just similar). You can check the article here for more info about that process.

 

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